S urface solar radiation is a major component of the surface heat budget. Diurnally and seasonally averaged over the entire Earth, 188 ± 7 W m–2 reach the surface to be either absorbed (~165 ± 6 W m–2) or reflected back to the atmosphere (Trenberth et al. 2009; Stephens et al. 2012). Changes in the amount of solar radiation received at the surface are intrinsically tied to the total amount of p...

It is believed that ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun participated in events related to the chemical evolution and birth of life on the primitive Earth. Although UV radiation would be also a driving force for the biological evolution of life on Earth, life space of the primitive living organisms would be limited in the UV-shielded place such as in the water at an early stage of the evolut...

The prediction of solar radiation is important for several applications in renewable energy research. Solar radiation is predicted by a number of solar radiation models both conventional and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based models. There are a number of meteorological and geographical variables which affect solar radiation prediction, so identification of suitable variables for accurate so...

Measurements of solar irradiance are critical for evaluating solar energy potential in a given location and for calculating the efficiency of a solar system (Photovoltaic and solar thermal). In order to maximize the energy collected by a given Photovoltaic System tracking the position of the sun in order to expose a solar panel to the maximum radiation level at any given time is needed: to do s...

In this study, the exergy efficiency of a flat plate solar collector using Al2O3, TiO2, CuO nanoparticles and pure water as base fluid is studied. Solar radiation is selected between 200 to 600 W/m2. The method to determine optimum values of optimization variables has been developed by Genetic Algorithm Toolbox in MATLAB software. Results show by increasing solar radiation the optimized exergy ...

In recent years, introduction of alternative energy sources such as solar energy is expected. Solar heat energy utilization systems are rapidly gaining acceptance as one of the best solutions to be an alternative energy source. However, thermal energy collection is influenced by solar radiation and weather conditions. In order to control a solar heat energy utilization system as accurate as pos...

Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) have received increased interest in recent years for their potential applications in microwave and millimeter wave communication systems. DRAs are normally used with the support of a ground plane. The radiation and impedance properties therefore depend not only on their physical dimensions and dielectric properties, but also on the size of the ground plane. ...